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IT Portfolio Management: Page 2 of 20

• procurement management, for requesting resources and materials;

• risk management, for quantifying, monitoring and analyzing risk;

• reporting and forecasting, for reporting on project and IT department performance based on cost, benefits, risk and resource capacity, as well as project timeliness; and

• project management, for shepherding requests through the selection, prioritization and implementation phases.

Although ITPM products cover many different aspects of project management, they typically operate on the same basic premise: IT projects must be aligned with business units' objectives and stay within budget. Perhaps the most compelling reason IT needs such products is to automate planning budgeting--something IT departments are notoriously bad at. Without a formalized process, projects are selected and priorities are set only after months of paper shuffling, compromises and meetings.